Dizzee Rascal

Once he basked in the sodium-vapor glare of the streets, now this former ‘boy on da corner’ is illuminated by the flashbulb pop of celebrity. No surprise, then, that Dizzee Rascal’s headline performance at this second night of Belsonic draws heavily from the latter part of his career and the chart-slaying hits that made him a star. The sound of sirens summons him, that wicked piranha-fish grin beaming as he surveys his surroundings and the boisterous, largely teenage, crowd. And then: “Welcome to the Dizzee fuckin’ Rascal show.”

Disappointingly, there’s no live band. Instead the basic set-up finds a DJ placed front and centre, backing singers flanking left and right, with Dizzee and his partner MC bounding wherever they damn please. The early portion of the show doffs its baseball-cap to the thrillingly nasty grime Dizzee made in his youth, a booming ‘Jus’ A Rascal’ and glitchy ‘I Luv U’ both aired. New track, ‘Bassline Junkie’ – with the refrain “Big, dirty, stinking bass” – combines the shoutalong stylings of his latter-day blockbusters with the ragged beats of those early records. The second half is weighted with heavy-hitting singles, Dizzee urging the ladies to grab their man for ‘Dance Wiv Me’, whilst the Florence + The Machine mash-up, ‘You Got The Dirtee Love’, is greeted as feverishly as any number this evening.

“I’m not liking this weather, I’m gonna take everyone on a holiday,” announces Dizzee, introducing his summertime anthem of the same name, its effervescent rhythms followed by the irrepressible blow-out of ‘Bonkers’, geysers of dry ice billowing and green lasers piercing the night sky. Brash entertainment, gut-shuddering bass and a blast of hi-octane escapism – in this austerity-era everyone could do with a dose of Dizzee.